


Welcome to the Family

by Sugarmouse



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Grief/Mourning, M/M, Mention of Character Death, Puppies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-05
Updated: 2014-07-05
Packaged: 2018-02-07 14:51:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1903140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sugarmouse/pseuds/Sugarmouse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hannibal doesn't really understand Will's love of dogs, not at first.</p>
<p>For the Murder Husbands Network weekly prompt <a href="http://murderhusbandsnetwork.tumblr.com/post/90350646968/prompt-running-late-but-this-weeks-prompt-is">"Family"</a></p>
            </blockquote>





	Welcome to the Family

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to [Jay Auris](http://archiveofourown.org/users/nighthawkms/pseuds/Jay%20Auris) for the beta!
> 
> You can contact me on tumblr at [sugarmaus](http://sugarmaus.tumblr.com) and on twitter [@ThisMouse](https://twitter.com/ThisMouse).

Hannibal doesn’t understand Will’s obsession with his dogs, not really. He understands that Will feels affection for them, much in the way Hannibal himself feels affection for Will. Yet he cannot quite recognise the parallels. What he feels for Will is so much deeper than what an animal like a dog could feel in reciprocation. Will must see that, surely.

He puts up with them though. They smell and make messes and leave hair everywhere, but Will’s face lights up when he sees them and he gains some kind of strength from their presence. Hannibal has seen when Will gets home from a bad day and he won’t talk with Hannibal, but he’ll curl up with the dogs and they’ll lick him and he whispers his problems to them. The don’t understand and yet Will seems to feel better for it. It’s therapy of a different sort.

It’s difficult, the first time. It had to happen eventually, Hannibal knows this. A dog’s life expectancy is shorter than a human one and Will’s dogs are ex-strays of varying ages and health. Hannibal is not surprised when one falls ill but Will seems shocked.

Perhaps Will was simply in denial that the day would come but despite the inevitability of the situation, it hits him hard. Will does not cry often these days. He does not cry over trivial matters. He cries when he returns from the vet and Hannibal holds him and strokes his hair and plays along with Will’s grief even if he doesn’t really understand it.

Hannibal isn’t sure what the correct period of mourning is for a dog. He isn’t sure if there _is_ a correct period for such a thing. Even if there is, he’s sure Will must be surpassing it. Even the other dogs don’t seem to lift his spirits much. Hannibal is stumped and falls back to his medical training, considering the best ways to process grief.

Hannibal finds the whole thing rather silly but he suggests a small memorial nonetheless and Will smiles at him when he does. He looks so pathetically sad but he smiles through the grief and says that he’ll write a few words to remember the dog by. Hannibal wonders how different a dog can possibly be from another that Will has specific feelings for a specific animal. Will has experienced far greater losses and yet his dog seems to hit him particularly hard.

Hannibal goes through the motions, for Will. He buys flowers, white and pink carnations. He tells Will that they symbolise remembrance, love, and innocence, and Will cries again. He tells Hannibal that they’re perfect for the memory of that specific dog and Hannibal is perplexed but he plays along.

Alana comes along and brings her own pet with it’s ridiculous name. He supposes it’s at least a better choice than the human names Will has a habit of choosing for his own pets. Alana seems to be rather sympathetic to Will’s feelings about the loss.

Will says a few words and asks Hannibal if he’d say something too. Hannibal doesn’t appreciate being put on the spot, but he steps forward and takes a breath and tries to imagine he’s talking about the type of loss he does care about. He gets a bit too into it, becomes a bit too convincing. He wipes at his eye when he thinks of the way he mourned Mischa, and Will hugs him. It feels nice to be close to someone living and vital when thinking about death.

Perhaps Will’s feelings about his dogs aren’t so hard to understand after all. He mourns the loss but as time goes by he seems to return to himself, albeit slowly. He plays with the rest of his pack, sits with them and pets them and gains his strength from their company. Hannibal watches and seeing Will smile again makes him smile too.

It seems Will gains something from his dogs, the kind of thing that Hannibal gets from Will. It is more than simple companionship, more than a distraction from the everyday horrors of his job and the world around them. Hannibal finds himself observing Will playing with his dogs in the garden more and more often and he smiles at the joy on Will’s face.

It’s not planned. He’s simply going about his usual business, shopping for groceries for a meal of the highest calibre. It is simply Hannibal’s routine that gets rudely interrupted on the way out of the store.

He might have considered killing the man who steps in front of him and blocks his way. He smells and appears homeless and Hannibal is irritated but his eyes go to the puppy in his arms and he thinks of Will.

The man grins at him and thrusts the animal at Hannibal and offers to sell the poor creature. It’s filthy and it whimpers but even Hannibal is not entirely unmoved by it’s pitiful noises. He doesn’t know why exactly he agrees to it, perhaps it’s simply the thought of how Will’s face might light up at the tiny thing. He pays the man and takes the small trembling creature home.

He arrives before Will and he rolls up his sleeves and bathes the puppy in the bathtub. It smells and it’s filthy and Hannibal simply won’t stand for even more dirt in his house. The puppy’s body feels so tiny and once it’s fur is wet, Hannibal can see all it’s ribs. It wags it’s tail and it licks his hand and Hannibal frowns.

It’s worth it though, when Will’s face lights up. Will cradles the puppy and it licks his face and wags it’s tail all over again and Hannibal can see it’s love at first sight, for both of them. Will is careful to introduce the puppy to the other dogs and Hannibal watches them, standing back.

Hannibal watches at a distance often enough but this time Will stands and takes his hand and makes him pet the puppy. It’s soft and it looks at him with big brown eyes and it’s tongue lolls from it’s mouth in a way that makes it appear to smile up at him.

Will stands next to them and they both watch the dogs mill around them and play and bark, and Will puts his arm around Hannibal’s waist and leans his head against his shoulder.

Hannibal doesn’t think the smile on Will’s face is simply because he thinks the puppy is cute. He does not think Will smiles when plays with his dogs simply because he likes them as pets. Hannibal senses it might be more than that. He puts his arm around Will’s shoulder and they stand like that, touching and watching the dogs play.

The puppy jumps at Hannibal’s legs and he sighs. Will crouches and scoops it up.

”What should we call her?” asks Will and Hannibal shakes his head. “It’s a little girl,” says Will and he scratches her ears. She wiggles in Will’s arms and playfully snaps at his fingers but it seems to be play behaviour rather than an attack. Hannibal frowns and wonders if Will expects him to grow invested in the animals now.

”I suppose that’s up to you,” says Hannibal. Will shakes his head and smiles up at him.

”You picked her up, and she’s going to live with us, isn’t she?” asks Will and he looks at the other dogs. “Though I don’t mind taking care of her, she’s going to be joining our pack after all.”

”Ours?” asks Hannibal absently and he shakes his head at Will’s words. Is Will’s happiness worth getting involved in his obsession with dogs?

Will looks at the ground and bites his lip for a moment before he looks up at Hannibal. “I know you don’t really care about my dogs, not really but, well, I appreciate you trying.” He smiles and Hannibal wants to kiss him but he doesn’t.

”They’re your family, I understand.” Will nods and Hannibal smiles at the simplicity of the whole thing falling into place. The dogs are Will’s family much as Will has become Hannibal’s own family.

”Yeah,” he says in agreement and he rests his head against Hannibal’s shoulder. “So, what do you want to call her? _Our_ puppy.”

Hannibal looks down at the creature in Will’s hands and frowns. He’ll have to think of something, for Will.


End file.
